No matter how vigilant you may be with keeping your financial records secure, thieves still seem to find a way to gain and use your card information to make unauthorized purchases. It can happen at the grocery store, the gas station, an ATM, or any other merchant you visit. It can even happen online on unsecured websites – and it can happen to you.
At CSE Federal Credit Union, we are committed to keeping our members’ personal information and assets safe while minimizing any inconvenience protecting your accounts may cause.
That’s why CSE’s fraud protection service monitors activity on our member’s cards – to notify us, and you, of any suspicious transactions. It’s always good to know that your card may be blocked if suspicious card activity occurs. If things like unusually high purchase amounts, out of the ordinary merchants, or uncharacteristic transactions originating in a different state or a foreign country are identified on your account, your card may be temporarily frozen. If you plan on traveling out of your residence state or out of the US, please notify us so we can place a travel alert on your card to avoid any interruptions on your trip.
When fraudulent card activity is suspected, like when you buy a big-ticket item at a store where you have no previous purchase history, you will be contacted immediately by phone by a fraud analyst to verify the transaction. If you tell us the transaction is valid, subsequent purchases will not be blocked. If card activity cannot be verified by you, the transaction will be marked as suspicious and your card will be blocked. To protect your account, CSE asks that you make sure your phone number on file is always up-to-date so that we can effectively contact you if there are ever suspicious transactions in question.
What happens if you miss the call to verify the activity? If you’re unable to answer, a voicemail will be left on behalf of the credit union. This voicemail will include your name and last four of the card number. Never trust voicemails with generic or vague information wanting to verify transactions. If you’re not comfortable calling back to the number on the voicemail be sure to have our phone number handy: 330-452-9801.
When a representative contacts you to verify your identity, they may ask for the last four digits of your social security number and/or last four digits of your card number. They will not ask for your entire social security number or entire card number. The representative will have your transaction information readily available on their end to verify those recent purchases with you.
Remember, never give out information such as your full social security number or full card number to anyone you suspect is not who they say they are – unfortunately, fraudsters do attempt to portray themselves as one person or company you’d trust.
Fraud can at times be unavoidable, but at CSE we offer simple tools to help you keep track of your accounts and keep fraud at bay:
Online & Mobile Banking
- View your transaction history immediately and/or more frequently, rather than waiting for the statement to come once a month to check that all of the transactions are your own
CardNav by CO-OP Mobile App
- Feel at ease knowing you can turn your card on or off in seconds in case you have misplaced it or believe your card has been used for fraudulent transactions
Mobile Alerts
- From your CSE online banking browser or on your CSE mobile app you can set up mobile alerts. This is an alert you can set up to get as a text message any time a withdraw or deposit comes through your account.
We are proud to include this level of security as part of your standard membership at CSE Federal Credit Union. If you’re ever concerned about your accounts or that you have fallen victim to fraud, please do not hesitate to give us a call at 330-452-9801.
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